Ice-shelf freshwater triggers for the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf melt tipping point in a global ocean model

• Main Authors: Hoffman, Matthew J., Begeman, Carolyn Branecky, Asay-Davis, Xylar S., Comeau, Darin, Barthel, Alice, Price, Stephen F., Wolfe, Jonathan D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Weddell Sea; Weddell; Ronne Ice Shelf; Antarc*; Antarctica; Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf; Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Iceberg*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2226; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00069261; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067651/egusphere-2023-2226.pdf; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2226/egusphere-2023-2226.pdf

Some ocean modeling studies have identified a potential tipping point from a low to high basal melt regime beneath the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS), Antarctica, with significant implications for subsequent Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss. To date, investigation of the climate drivers and impacts of this possible event have been limited, because ice-shelf cavities and ice-shelf melting are only now starting to be included in global climate models. Using a version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) that represents both ocean circulations and melting within ice-shelf cavities, we explore freshwater triggers of a transition to a high melt regime at FRIS in a low resolution (30 km in the Southern Ocean) global ocean-sea ice model. We find that a realistic spatial distribution of iceberg melt fluxes is necessary to prevent the FRIS melt regime change from unrealistically occurring under historical reanalysis-based atmospheric forcing. Further, improvement of the default parameterization for mesoscale eddy mixing significantly reduces a large regional fresh bias and weak Antarctic Slope Front structure, both of which precondition the model to melt regime change. Using two different stable model configurations, we explore the sensitivity of FRIS melt regime change to regional ice-sheet freshwater fluxes. Through a series of sensitivity experiments prescribing incrementally increasing melt rates from the smaller, neighboring ice shelves in the eastern Weddell Sea, we demonstrate the potential for an ice-shelf melt ``domino effect'' should the upstream ice shelves experience increased melt rates. The experiments also reveal that modest ice-shelf melt biases in a model, especially at coarse ocean resolution where narrow continental shelf dynamics are not well resolved, can lead to unrealistic melt regime change downstream, and these ice-shelf melt teleconnections are sensitive to baseline model conditions. Our results highlight both the potential and the peril of simulating prognostic Antarctic ice-shelf ...